Stacey’s Events Management Story

Current job title:

Event Director and Planner

Career Highlights:

I was born and grew up in Zimbabwe so the opportunities I’m presented with are all highlights to me that I never take for granted! Organising Jamie Carragher’s Testimonial match in 5 months despite not having a clue initially what a ‘Testimonial’ was! I planned a charity match attended by 37,000 people with a gala dinner for 700 on the same day and in total raised £1.3m for North West charities. More than 10 years later, I’m back working with Jamie on an annual event called Football For Change which feels like a bit of a full circle moment!

Other highlights include working on Formula 1 in Dubai & Marseille, Project Managing a conference in Sydney, working on the MOBO Awards and having a Spice Girl perform at one of my events! I will also caveat that it’s not always glamour and highlights but being able to take the good and manage the bad is all part of the territory!

University Highlights:

I think I really enjoyed that I got to put what I was learning at uni into practice really quickly as I was working in an events role throughout. Being able to apply the theory to practical situations was invaluable to me as I was learning on the job with support from my lecturers.

Why did you choose to study Events Management:

I initially studied Journalism as I love writing, but realised that I was drawn to organising so decided to go back to uni and focus on that degree. I’m the eldest of 5 children so I always regard myself as the ‘family manager’- being able to handle those logistics and politics has always served me well in both corporate events & weddings!

Any advice for students / graduates:

Commit to studying but you really need to have as much hands-on experience as possible to go with it! Offer to shadow or support other planners because you’ll get the best view of what your role could look like in the real world. Also, connect with people in the industry- there are so many really genuine people in this industry that are willing to offer opportunities and could end up being great friends as you grow your business!

If you want to find out more about our Events Management BA (Hons) Degree, which can be combined with a number of other business related subjects at the University of Chester Business School in Queen’s Park, please click here to see our course pages.